1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) system and, in particular, to a method of diagnosing the MRI system.
2. Description of the Related Art
A magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) system generates an image by using information obtained from resonance that occurs after exposing an atomic nucleus to a magnetic field. The resonance of an atomic nucleus refers to a phenomenon whereby, when a particular high frequency wave is incident on an atomic nucleus in a state of being magnetized by an external magnetic field, the atomic nucleus in a low energy state absorbs a high frequency wave energy and thus, is excited to a high energy state. The atomic nucleus has a resonant frequency that differs according to the type of atomic nucleus. The resonance is affected by the strength of an external magnetic field. There are numerous atomic nuclei in a human body and a hydrogen atomic nucleus is generally used for MRI.
An MRI system includes a magnet for forming a main magnetic field in a scanning space, a radio frequency (RF) coil for generating an RF signal in the scanning space, and a gradient coil for forming a gradient magnetic field to select a scanning area of a target object in the scanning space. In the MRI system, a pulse sequence designed for scanning a target object is applied to the RF coil and the gradient coil, and an echo signal of the RF signal generated from the scanning space is obtained. The signals output by the RF coil and the gradient coil have errors due to many factors. The errors in an output signal deteriorate a signal to noise ratio (SNR) of an MR image. Also, an MR image may include artifacts.